I've been working on the power in my basement (adding a couple of circuits and lights for the shop) and have been using a new wire stripper. The thing is really slick for stripping NM cable and working inside boxes. I've had some others that work OK, until they're dropped or are used to try to bend wire. Once they get whacked, they're never the same. These are strong enough that that doesn't happen. Nice!
Nice! I love the "live circuit" warning on the pivot point. ;-)
I recently picked up a multi-size stripper at an estate sale store for $2. It looks like each notch has been hand sharpened. Better than any new stripper I've ever bought.
I have an expensive set of pliers/wire cutters that I used to wire my house, 25 years ago. I still have them. But when I was cutting through a run of romex in the attic that I "swore" I switched off power to... well, let's just say that after a pop and a puff of smoke, I turned them into 12ga wire strippers. :-)
Well, that's one way to put a "notch" in them. ;-)
Hate it when that happens, -MIKE-. I imagine you may have altered your skivvies as well. ;)
Ha! It happened too fast for any reaction, really. It wasn't until I tried to move the pliers that I realized what happened. They were "spot welded" to the wire a little bit. When I wiggled them off the wire, that's when I saw the perfectly round notch in the cutter.
Thanks God for circuit breakers!
A bunch of years back a neighbor asked me to change the fixture outside the side door of his house. Before I started working I asked him if he had turned off the power. Based on his "Yes" I started working. I had to cut some old wires, strip stuff, etc. I finishe d swapping out the fixture and told him to turn the power back on.
He opened the screen door, reached in and flipped the wall switch.
I guess his idea of turning off the power was a little different than mine. Luckily for me the original fixture (in a very old house) had been wired correctly enough that the wall switch actually killed the power to the fixture. I gently explained the difference between shutting off the fixture and turning off the power. He was a little embarrassed and I le arned a lesson as well: Trust, but verify.
That's all I do but I also measure test before I start work. ...a different sort of "trust, but verify". ;-)
Nice! I love the "live circuit" warning on the pivot point. ;-)
True, very true. I will often swap light fixtures that don't have the power in the box, only at the switch. But I only do that if I'm alone and there's nobody around to mistakenly flip the light switch on.
BTW, the days of switched-wire-only to the switch box are numbered. New electrical codes require common and neutral to all boxes. There are so many new switching devices which require a complete power circuit that new code is requiring all rough electrical to have the neutral run to every box, even if it's just in a closed loop. That way, it's there for future modifications and upgrades.
Got fuses here, as long as no penny is involved works just as good.
snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com was heard to mutter:
Interesting tool. Thanks for sharing.
I've probably still have too many wire strippers aaround here.
Ten plus years ago I picked up a set similar to these...
Mine are different brand but I bought a few sets of both the larger and smaller ones. I kept a set and gave the other sets away as gifts.
I'll keep using them till they quit working. I don't use them daily, so they've held up well and are easier on my arthritic hands.
Guess I failed the 'never have enough tools' in the stripper category.
You also have to be careful of the neutrals. The "electrician" who wired my house didn't pigtail the neutrals so when I separate the neutrals, the downstream neutral can be energized through another lamp (or whatever) on the circuit. DAHIKT
It's about time. I hope they're going to eliminate the weird 3-way connections, too (force the neutral to go with the travelers).
Edison circuits can cause that too. I have *one* in my house, never figured out why. Probably saved less than 15 feet of wire and created decades worth of a PITA.
I've swapped two light fixtures in December with power just shut off at the switch. I try to treat the wires as live all the time.
Just the opposite for me. I want people around, but I tell everyone what I'm doing.
Man, I'd be so happy with a ground to every box. I still have tube and post in places, with zero slack making changing switches or outlets a real excercise. I don't know what the code was when the building was last sold (~35 years ago) but I question how well it was inspected even then. When the wiring went in, it was run alongside the gas lines for gas lighting. Instead of a box, I end up hanging lights off the pipe coming out of the ceiling. (One grace is that those pipes have all been disconnected from the gas supply.)
Elijah
------ would have to move the asbestos insulation to get at some of the wiring
Me being an amateur electrician, I strip my wires very differently. I have one of those metal steel rippers to cut the outer casing back 6-12 inches. Then use my diagonal cutters to cut off the casing. Then I get out my Kl ein wire stripper and strip the jackets on the actual wires.
I've never used one. Wouldn't know how.
I have a pair similar to that (also Klein) with a 12Ga stripper hole in the blade.
That's what I was talking about in my original post. Get those jaws whacked out (it's *easy*) and they're useless. The Milwaukee stripper has heavy beams on the edges so is unlikely to get bent. The tips act as really nice long-nose, as well. They also make a stripper (like the Klein above) that looks like the one I posted but exchanges the
14/12Ga NM stripper with a more standard stripper layout.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.